1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a multi-staged hinge assembly for a portable electrical device that is capable of driving a portable electrical device to automatically tilt after sliding.
2. Descriptions of the Related Art
According to the advancement of the manufacturing processes and mobile communication technologies, portable electrical devices are becoming increasingly popular and also gradually miniaturized in size. With different designed structures, the portable electrical devices can provide more diversified operational styles to satisfy the various needs of users.
For example, to allow users to browse information displayed on the screens of the portable electrical devices more clearly and input relatively complex instructions, the portable electrical devices now tend to be designed with both a larger and wider display and a keyboard comprising multiple keys. Because these components occupy a large volume, common portable electrical devices currently available are mostly of a clamshell or slide design for convenient use.
The operation for a portable electrical device 1 of a slide design is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The portable electrical device 1 comprises a first body portion 11 and a second body portion 13, in which the first body portion 11 is provided with a keyboard 111 and the second body portion 13 is provided with a display 131. In more detail, FIG. 1A illustrates a configuration where the portable electrical device 1 is closed. In this configuration, the portable electrical device 1 mainly exposes the display 131 at the front of the second body portion 13 and keys 15 located at the side to apply general operations such as simple instruction input, incoming call answering and so on. In reference to FIG. 1B, when the input of a relatively complex instruction with the keyboard is needed, the second body portion 13 can be slid with respect to the first body portion 11 to expose the keyboard 111.
Hence, when using the conventional portable electrical device, the user can only rely on himself or herself to adjust the portable electrical device to a particular angle with respect to the users' eyes for comfortable watching depending on different use conditions and environmental brightness. In other words, when the user operates the portable electrical device at different operational conditions (e.g., held in a hand or put on a desk), the optimal viewing angle of the portable electrical device varies. Hence, using the portable electrical device under different conditions by only adjusting the orientation in which it is held in the hand by the user would fail to satisfy the user's needs during an extended time of use, thereby causing inconvenience.
In view of this, this invention provides a multi-staged hinge assembly for a portable electrical device, which allows the user to use different tilt angles depending on different use conditions.